"Avatar": The first review is in -- it's good. Really good.

The trailer reminds us that Cameron did Terminator and Aliens. And he also did The Abyss, which I loved.

This one looks like he's deliberately going for something special and seminal, effects and visuals-wise, like when directors make blatant Oscar grabs. It comes off as pretentious and overreaching.

But . . . if I wait for video, the impact of the visuals, which is obviously meant to be a large part of the appeal, will largely be lost. So I'll give it a chance in theaters, and see what happens.

 

I don't care if it sucks or not. Actually, I'll never know, because I don't intend to see it either.

 

Not me. I'll try to make the midnight showing.

I think it has the potential to be epic. Yeah, its Dances with Smurfs or something, but who the hell cares? It is the first movie truly made for 3D and one of the reasons why so many theaters now have 3D capability. Just from a movie making perspective, it is worth seeing. It is, in many ways, a historic picture.

 

Dances with Smurfs.......that's pretty funny.

That would be entirely watchable if Gargamel were running around with a flamethrower.

 

I was going to go with "CGI Fern Gully," but Dw/S is better.

 

This looks Battlefield Earth bad.

 

Well, we can hope.

 

Looks utterly charmless.

A valentine to one's ego. Or special effects.

The whore is lifting her skirt once again, after staying out of the limelight for 10 years.

 

"Aliens" aside, James Cameron's movies have always been best viewed on mute. His films have always been visually stunning, but with absolutely terrible dialogue only a teenager would believe to be authentic. Maybe I'll be wrong, but all it took was the "You're not in Kansas anymore" line in the trailer to tell me it's going to be more of the same this time around.

 

Fixed.

But yeah. This movie looks awful.

 

Ebert loves it.

http://tinyurl.com/yadak39

 

Ebert loved 'Knowing,' which is the worst piece of celluloid I've ever seen in the theatre.